


Favourite Quotes

by Merixcil



Series: BatCat Week 2017 [6]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Catwoman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Marriage Proposal, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-11
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:20:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25092247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merixcil/pseuds/Merixcil
Summary: He's a man of few words
Relationships: Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne
Series: BatCat Week 2017 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1805317
Kudos: 7





	Favourite Quotes

He’s a man of few words, choosing to let his fists do the talking and, where possible, staying silent altogether. He hovers at the edge of every photo ever taken in this no good, stinking, wonderful city. Selina learns to breathe a little deeper around him, taking enough time with her words that he might come to his senses and fill the silence all on his own.

When she gets tired, she leaves him hanging. He probably thinks she’s playing hard to get. “Come chase me, Batman.”

She doesn’t hear him talking to an empty room once she’s gone. “Count on it.”

She counts on it anyway. Selina lets herself drop in and out of his life because she’s not quite smart enough to stay away. Curiosity killed the cat, but she figures she has nine lives to play with.

Bruce likes that she doesn’t ask for more of him than he’s able to give. He’s so used to living his life behind closed doors and thick steal lining, supposedly impenetrable to anyone but himself that the words get stuck in his throat, even when he wants to tell her.

He doesn’t know what he’s trying to say, just that he’s trying and he’s not very good at it. Selina isn’t what he would describe as talkative but she doesn’t have trouble talking, and when he thinks back on their earliest conversations it’s all her. He’s not sure that he ever said a thing. Stumbling out of the gate with his heart still guarded. “Selina…you…God, I’m pathetic.”

The first time she dares suggest that there might be more to the two of them than they can accomplish individually he goes stiff. Then he thinks about the night she told him that she could read his desires in the rigidity of his muscles. Batman isn’t supposed to be so easy to read.

Admittedly it’s not the very first time either of them have suggested that they might have a future that involves the other, but when Selina catches him on the lip of the city, standing on a gargoyle looking out across his kingdom and asks him. “Aren’t you at all curious?” it's the first time she really means it. She’s never really meant it before, not without guarding herself. He loves it, he hates it. He loves her but if he were to say as much he’s sure that everything he’s ever worked for would come crashing down around his ears so he flirts with temptation and pushes her away. It’s his loss, he thinks. He’s not used to worrying about anyone else’s heart.

She’s angry with him for weeks after the business with Hush, but mostly Selina’s angry with herself for letting it get that far. She’s good at reading between the lines but no matter what lies below the surface, it’s what people do that counts. Saying is doing, keeping silent is doing nothing. It doesn’t matter how much Bruce wants her if he can’t attest to it.

Years down the line, she’ll feel foolish for ever doubting him. That’s part of the deal with Bruce, he makes everyone around him look like an idiot. It’s Selina’s fondest wish that she’s managed to make him blush at his own stupidity once or twice. He is a moron, but only sometimes.

Like when he’s standing in the pouring rain, telling her about some stupid diamond that she’d long since forgotten about. “I’m so scared.”

That’s something she’s going to take to her grave, that she put fear in the Batman’s heart. Or he put it there himself but she inspired it. Whichever way round it is, the moment belongs to the two of them and when he asks her to marry him she’s never felt more powerful.

She says yes, of course. All that time, all those years of chasing each other and having to trust that the other was putting as much effort into the game. She’d be a fool not to.

Selina keeps talking, long after Bruce has let her into his life and made it clear that no matter how comfortable he may be with a person, the words don’t come easily. She fills the night air with flirtation and observation, argues with the kids over family dinners, asks Alfred for cleaning advice and to his butler’s eternal delight she actually listens.

But ultimately, she saves the best words for him. They take the night together, regardless of how heavy the rain is and when he’s least expecting it she fills him up with sweet nothings that he can swallow down and save for himself just as long as he likes.

“You are part of the night, just like me. We’re not afraid of it, we come alive it. We’re thrilled by it.” It’s an old one but a good one, and it still sends fire running down Bruce’s spine.

He replies with something even older, the words so rich, so true after all this time that he can’t help but let them pour straight back out. “Just you and me. Bat and Cat. In the dark.”

“Making sparks.” Selina whispers. Bruce doesn’t need to hear her to know she says the words. She doesn’t need to speak, but she does. Oh how she does.

**Author's Note:**

> This work was originally posted as part of a multi chaptered 'BatCat Week 2017' fic that I'm trying to split up. If you think you've read it before, you probably have
> 
> Comments on the previous posting of this fic (just ask if you want me to remove yours) include:
> 
> >Khaleeki: Ugh this!! I love this. The mixture of the quotes in a story I just it was really brilliant.  
> >>Merixcil: Thank you so much!


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